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<h1>The Pencil Code Team</h1>

<p>The Pencil Code Team is devoted to advancing computer
science education by making programming as simple and as
universal as using a pencil.

<p>Our project grew out of an open-source teaching collaboration
between Googler David Bau, his son Anthony, and a group of friends.

<p>Before <a href="//pencilcode.net">pencilcode.net</a>,
we had created a
<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20020210113129/http://notesbydave.com/htmlpad/script.htm">series of</a>
<a href="http://dabbler.org/home/00-about/00-README.html">online</a>
<a href="http://js.dabbler.org/">programming tools</a> which we
used to teach Javascript at a variety of urban and suburban
classrooms.

<p>Each time we taught, we learned what was hard, we
watched where the tool got in the way, and we built a better
tool the next time.
Pencil Code is the 5th iteration.

<p>When the version simplifying CoffeeScript
was picked up by David's brother's school
for use in many of their classrooms, David realized it filled
a need.  (David's brother Kevin teaches math at Beaver Country Day,
home of the <a href=
"http://bcdschool.org/tag/coded-curriculum/">coded curriculum</a>.)

<p>The latest addition was a dual-mode block and text editor
(<a href="https://github.com/droplet-editor/droplet"
>Droplet</a>) created by Anthony Bau.  It was inspired by
Hal Abelson's observation that perceived
differences between blocks and text were a
significant problem, a gap that Droplet now
bridges beautifully.

<h2>Who We Are</h2>

<p>Pencil Code is the work of many of
devoted students, teachers, open-source
contributors, and volunteers.  We welcome
your participation too: here is
our <a href="http://dev.pencilcode.net/"
>contributor's portal</a>.

<p><b>David Bau</b>
is a professor at Northeastern university.  He is director of
the Pencil Code Foundation, which he created after leading
image search ranking efforts at Google, and before starting
a late-career PhD in artificial intelligence at MIT.
At Google, David helped lead the teams behind
Google Talk (now called Hangouts) and Google Image Search.
Prior to his decade at Google, David built
Internet Explorer and .NET platform tools at
Microsoft and open-source Java enterprise tools
at Crossgain and BEA Systems.  He is a volunteer
teacher with Citizen Schools, and he is
coauthor of a textbook on numerical linear algebra.
Google uses Pencil Code in its computer science
outreach programs.

<p><b>Anthony Bau</b>
graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology
with a degree in computer science.  He helped develop Pencil
Code while a high school student at
Phillips Exeter Academy and president of the
Exeter Computing Club. He has been active in
novice computing education since running and
participating in middle-school programming clubs;
he was a member of the Lincoln Gear Ticks, national
winners at the 2011 First Lego League robotics championship.
Anthony learned to program using Scratch, Python,
and Javascript, and he created Droplet based
on those experiences. Code.org uses Droplet
in its CSP curriculum tool, and it supports
Anthony through an internship for his
open-source contributions to Droplet.

<p><b>Xinan Liu</b>,
a student at National University
of Singapore, contributed the icon-based
directory UI, screen shots of student projects,
and the browserify-based Pencil Code build.

<p><b>Saksham Aggarwal</b>,
a student at IIIT
Hyderabad, contributed the HTML block mode
editor and several core improvements to Droplet.

<p><b>Jeremy Ruten</b>,
a student in Saskatoon Canada,
is developing pencil-tracer, a code transpiler
that traces execution flow and variable state
in CoffeeScript and JavaScript.

<p><b>Amanda Boss</b>,
an intern at Google and student
at Harvard, is developing a timeline interface
that will allow students to rewind their programs.

<p><b>Cali Stenson</b>,
an intern at Google and student
at Wellesley, is building a UI for visualizing
execution traces and changes to variable state.

<p><b>Dinuka Desilva</b>,
a student at Informatics Institute of Technology
Sri Lanka, created the filtering UI
for long directory views and working on
other improvements.

<p><b>Chris Pirich</b>,
an engineer at Code.org, modified
Droplet to work well when embedded in the code.org
tutorial environment.

<p><b>Brent Van Minnen</b>,
an engineer at Code.org,
contributed the ability to drag palette
blocks in text mode in Droplet.

<p><b>Sydney Pickens</b>,
a Google technical program
manager, curated the block palette, and ran a research
study testing efficacy of Pencil Code in classrooms.

<p><b>Matthew Dawson</b>,
a teacher and product manager
for Google, created and tested lessons as part
of a pilot class and research study for Pencil Code.

<p><b>David Weintrop</b>,
a PhD student at Northwestern,
is doing educational research on the transition
between blocks and text, using his own
customized version of Pencil Code.

<p><b>Cindy Yang</b> and <b>Ji-Sun Ham</b>,
students at the Harvard Graduate School of Education,
created a curriculum, videos, and Pencil Cards
used in Citizen Schools.

<p><b>Mandy Hauser</b>, program director for Citizen
Schools, is writing and formalizing the Pencil Code
curriculum for use in Citizen Schools nationwide.

<p><b>Caroline Meeks</b>,
a charter school teacher at
Prospect Hill Academy, is a strategic advisor
for Pencil Code, the tool in her classroom
and helping to map the CS ed tech space.

<p><b>Jeremiah Blanchard</b>,
a PhD student at
University of Florida and program director
at Full Sail University, is developing a
Python mode for use in his classrooms.

<p><b>Sharon Lincoln</b>, Chair of the Nonprofit Practice
group at <b>Foley Hoag</b>, is providing generous pro
bono legal counsel in formation of our 501(c)3.

<p><b>Siddhartha Sahai</b>,
a student at BITS Pilani,
is developing a promise-based await extension to
Iced CoffeeScript.

<p><b>Ethan Apter</b>,
a Google engineer, coordinated
several Citizen Schools classes usign Pencil Code,
and is mentoring student contributors.

<p><b>Yana Malysheva</b>,
a Google engineer, is mentoring
students and also developing the promise-based
await extensions.

<p><b>D Feher</b>,
a Google special projects PM, devised the Pencil Code Gym with
music and creative writing modules tor reaching more types of students,
and coordinated its implementation and showcasing at Google I/O events.

<p><b>Bob Cassels</b>,
a Google engineer, is contributing
a Scheme-inspired arbitrary-precision arithmetic
mode for Pencil Code and CoffeeScript.

<p><b>Anand Ramakrishna</b>,
a Microsoft engineer, wrote
the node.js backend that serves and stores
Pencil Code programs.

<p><b>Joe Beda</b>,
who is ex-Google and ex-Microsoft,
contributed the production setup that runs
Pencil Code on Google Compute Engine.

<p><b>Amy Briggs</b>,
CS professor at Middlebury,
and teaching assistant <b>Tom Dobrow</b>
designed and taught a college CS course
for nonmajors using Pencil Code.

<p><b>Pavel Simakov</b>,
a Google engineer, contributed the
capability to embed and integrate Pencil Code
as a widget into other tutorial websites.

<p>Googlers <b>David Saff</b>, and <b>Alison Cichowlas</b>,
contributed the Pencil Code Gym implementation, and
helped organized youth events using the tool.

<p><b>Rachel Nicoll</b>,
a project manager at the MassTLC
Education Foundation, organized and created activities
for our first Hour of Code activity in 2014.

<p><b>Alexander Wei</b>,
a Phillips Exeter student,
contributed the capability to use tranparent images
as nonrectangular sprites.

<p><b>Weihang Fan</b>,
a Phillips Exeter student,
identified several bugs that impact beginners, and he
fixed autoindenting problems in the ace editor.

<p><b>James Synge</b>,
a Google engineer, created the protractor UI
to help debug the turtle, and collaborated on
a predecessor to Pencil Code.

<p><b>Sarah Judd</b>,
a curriculum developer with Girls Who Code,
and <b>David Miller</b>,
a Google engineer who coaches a GWC club,
are collaborating to create GWC activities
using Pencil Code.

<p><b>Kim Arcand</b>, a NASA astronomer,
and <b>Gus Muench</b>,
an AAS astronmer, contributed the Hour of Code
activity that lets students program with authentic
multiwavelength astronomical image data.

<p><b>Piper Bau</b> created the first youtube video explaining
how to use Pencil Code.

<p><b>Joshua Greene</b>, <b>Jennifer Hardy</b>,
<b>Clayton Weston</b>, <b>Kelly Powers</b>,
<b>Elaine Griggs</b>, <b>Kevin Bau</b>,
<b>Rob MacDonald</b>, <b>Whitney McKnight</b>,
<b>David Case</b>, and <b>Karene Hines</b>
are teachers who brought Pencil Code into their classrooms
and contributed particularly valuable guidance,
experience, and lesson ideas.

<p><b>Ramakrushna Arugollu</b>, <b>Latisha Silvera</b>,
<b>Kevin Egan</b>, <b>Joy Basu</b> (all at John Hancock),
<b>Eric Steinlauf</b>, <b>Nikhil Thorat</b>,
<b>Emily Bernier</b>, <b>Norris Boyd</b>,
<b>Colin McMillin</b>,
<b>Jun Lee</b>, <b>Greg Dennis</b>,
and <b>Thomas Colthurst</b> (all at Google),
taught Citizen Schools and hosted Hackathons
using our tools, and helped develop valuable improvements.

<p>Special thanks to Google managers <b>Maggie Johnson</b>,
<b>Steve Vinter</b>, <b>Marika Marchegger</b>,
<b>Jamie Sue Goodman</b>, and <b>Chris Stephenson</b>,
who have all supported David in his
quest to contribute to computer science education, and
to Code.org managers <b>Hadi Partovi</b> and
<b>Sarah Filman</b>, who have supported Anthony in
his pioneering work on Droplet.  Thanks to
Google Summer of Code for financial support for the
open-source contributions of three summer students.

<p>Pencil Code is an open-source project that builds on
Iced CoffeeScript, a langage created by <b>Jeremy Ashkenas</b>
and <b>Max Krohn</b>, and on many other open source libraries.
Pencil Code is only possible because
of the inventiveness and generosity of the vibrant
Javascript open source community.  The libraries
that we incorporate under open licenses are listed
<a href="http://pencilcode.net/license.html">here</a>.

<figure>
<img src="/image/team.jpg">
<figcaption>A few of the Pencil Code contributors in Summer 2015</figcaption>
</figure>

<p>You can follow some of the happenings with Pencil Code
<a href="//blog.pencilcode.net/">on our blog</a>.

<p>If you would like to use Pencil Code in your classroom,
or if you are developing open-source improvements to the system,
please join our discussion group!  Add your contact information
to <a href="//teach.pencilcode.net/">teach.pencilcode.net</a>,
and we will invite to our group on Slack within about a day.


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